What a long, long week. But it's over now, I hope. A full range of emotions. Now it's time to get on with life and just be grateful because it could have turned out a lot differently. I'm going to thank God for every day I have. Thanks to all of you who sent good words and lots of prayers. I'm not sure yet how the hernia will be treated. Probably not aggressively right now.

Well, on to other things! The Bowl of Balls is growing. Today is the deadline for this months Totally Useless SAL. I did ALOT of frogging this month. Ran into a brick wall with Houmas House. Will post photo as soon as everything is all straightened out.

Here's an OLD WIP. I started this project in 2006. I finished all the cushion covers except for four. And then got totally bored. I pulled them out a couple of weeks ago and put a wrap on it. They are by Pine Mountain, one cushion and twelve different covers. Boy, I hated that fabric! The instructions said not to use a hoop but I ended up using one anyway. Nasty fabric!!

This one was for fun. It's a biscornu made from a freebie from Stitcher's Village. I used fabby, thread and beads from my stash. It was a "quick fix" and I do love these little things.

Last, but certainly NOT least, the queen is in the building. Giselle is turning out to be the sweetest little cat. She's not nearly as skittish and has learned to let me know what she wants. She lets me do head and belly rubs now and is really reeling me in.

So....that's it for now. Looking forward to Thanksgiving and probably Houston. Haven't seen the grandkids since September and it's time. I can't believe my son has an almost-teenager.  Take care everyone and enjoy life. It's a great thing to have.

WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY IT IS. GOD IS IN HIS HEAVEN WATCHING OVER CHILDREN AND FAT LADIES!

My report is back. Just a few minutes ago. It's a Bochdalek hernia. Most often found in children but can affect adults, too. No thoughts of  repairing it right now. It's not painful and whatever the bulge is (maybe fat???) is not life-threatening. I saw the actual x ray yesterday when I had the CT scan, so I was feeling a little bit better.

Now today---well, I'm going to get out of the house for awhile. I'm sure there is a reason I've just had the life nearly scared out of me, so it's time to find out why. What I know at this point is that life is a very valuable commodity. It should never be taken for granted or used in any harmful way. We are all God's children. We are to love and care and pray for each other. And I can't wait until tomorrow. Or even an hour from now.

I feel like a Taco Bell mango-strawberry Frutista!!!!!

Well, it seems like it maybe a lesson a bit harder learned.

My doctor's office called around 4:15 yesterday afternoon with a report on my x ray. No pneumonia. That's good news. The bad news is that there is a "suspicious nodule", 6cm in size, in my left lung. Well. Didn't expect that.

So I've had a range of emotions since then. The anger hasn't hit, nor the sadness. Just disbelief.

I'm having a CT scan at 8:15 this morning. A fasting one, of course. I'm sitting here starving. It's almost 6 AM, two and a half hours to count down and I'm hungry. As soon as it's over I'm heading for Taco Bell for a mango-strawberry Fruitista.

It could be anything. Right now I'm hanging on to that. And it could go the other way. My church is praying for me and the choir had special prayer last night. At this moment that seems like the good and proper thing to do. After all, nothing about my life is in my hands. Just His.

So if you are of a like mind, I would appreciate any words going toward Heaven. For me, sure. But for my family. In my mind right now are thoughts of just being rid of whatever this is by any means-by prayer or by surgery. Or whatever. It's keeping my mind off things I should be concentrating on.

That's that. Now I'm going to stitch.

Boy, I'm hungry. And still sneezing, blowing and coughing.

THANK YOU.

SUPER DUPER STITCHING GIVEAWAY!!

All you guys who love to stitch, hop on over to Angela's blog and register for her giveaway. It's an awesome  stitching box.

http://hookedonstitches.blogspot.com/

FOOTBALL AND LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY

Okay. Here I sit, absolutely miserable.  The nagging little cough I've had since September has risen up and bit me on the butt. Big time. We went home for the football game-more later- and I did okay. Sunday night it hit.  Monday found me at the doctor's office: massive infection. Sinuses, lymph nodes in my neck and BAD bronchitis, fever 101. I'm waiting to hear from the x ray because it looks like pneumonia, too. But I have some wonderful drugs: vibramycin, prednisone, flonase and these great little pills for the cough. Lesson learned the hard way.

We went home this weekend for the Alabama-LSU game. Those crazy LSU fans seriously believe we consider them rivals. WRONG. LSU is "small stuff". Auburn is the one. And LSU fans always blame something else for their loss. It just couldn't be that the other team was better (we won 25-14). This time it was the SEC officials calling bad plays.There were some questionable ones but they wouldn't have changed anything. LSU-ranked #9-played the #2 ranked team. Gee. Read the handwriting!!!!

We live in the Deep South. It's November, so we all live and breathe football. Here are some shots from the game. I took a lot of photos and will put them on my flickr account a little later.  In the meantime.....

These are some of the photos from inside of the stadium during the game. It seats 92,000 plus and, believe me, it was packed. Anything crimson and white is Alabama. Purple and gold is LSU.

Here you can begin to see the addition to the stadium. When it's finished, the stadium will be completely bowl-shaped and enclosed.

The final score. Victory.

The outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

One of our customs is "tailgating". It's another word for "partying". Tents are set up, grills are fired up, TVs are turned on, coolers filled and it all begins HOURS before the game (try the night before!) and ends late into the night. Some of the greatest food in the world. And everyone is a friend to the next guy.  Denny Chimes can be seen in the background. It's the "symbol" of the university. There's an old-wives tale that says everytime a virgin walks by a brick falls from Denny.  Don't ask!!!!

This is also on the Quad, which is the center of the university. It's HUGE. I remember many a frozen morning walking across the Quad on ice. It gets really cold in Tuscaloosa.

Some LSU people got in on our party. But that's okay. Their symbol is Mike the Tiger. Ours is Big Al, the elephant.

And some nostalgia. This is Morgan Hall. My upper class major classes were here. It's the Foreign Language building.

So that's what's going on here. I have some stitchy and kitty photos, but they will wait for another day.

Until then, happy stitching. And, PTL, we dodged a bullet. Ida hit this morning on the coast of Alabama.

See ya later.

HALLOWEEN IN HOUSTON, FOOTBALL IN ALABAMA

Weekend before last was the great Alabama-Tennessee game. We won-barely.  Here's three peas in a pod: Mike Tabb, David and Deigh's cousin from Mobile;my brother-in-law Deigh and son Michael. It was a little warmer than Homecoming! Thanks to Mike T. for the photo.

Michael went to Houston this weekend. He went to visit John and family but really went to the air show. He took MANY great photos. This one is of John (the Mad Maestro), Laura (Betty Crocker) and the kids. Great photo. Thanks, Michael.

I added and subtracted from my blog section. Added some great ones. I also added a cooking section. I rarely cook these days, but every now and then will get a wild hair and hit the kitchen. I have a map to find my way there!! Cajun Delights is my favorite and Catholic Cuisine ain't half bad. Enjoy!